EXTENDING THE LEGACY
PLANN I NG AMERICA'S CAP ITAL FOR THE 21ST C ENT URY Introduction two
A Framework for Change five
Building on the Past thirteen
Unifying the City and the Core nineteen
Museums, Memorials and the federal workplace twenty-five
Waterfronts and Open Spaces thirty-three
Transportation thirty-nine
Hometown and Region forty-nine
implementation fifty-five
Conclusion sixty-one
planning Policies sixty-two
map of Key locations sixty-six introduction
ashington has been described as “a city of magnificent distances,” and few who have seen it would disagree. As impressive as its buildings and monuments is its remarkable openness. WIts broad avenues and expansive public spaces are reminders of America’s democratic values, symbolizing a government that is accessible to its people and a nation with room to grow. “To change a wilder ness into a city, to erect and beautify buildings...to that degree of perfection necessary to receive the seat of government of so extensive an empire” — that is how Pierre L’Enfant described his vision for Washington. In every direction are reminders of a larger order of things that say “America’s Capital.” Now imagine that same city so jammed with tourists that visiting the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial and other national monuments becomes a numbing ordeal; a city immobilized by cars and buses, where precious open space is routinely devoured by chaotic development; a city sharply divided between a federal precinct for tourists and government workers, and commercial and residential districts for everyone else. These are not alarmist fantasies but a plausible description of things to come unless Washington redefines its Monumental Core, which extends from the steps of the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery, and from the White House to the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. Laid out by Pierre L’Enfant in , then refined and amplified by the McMillan Commission in , this is the Washington of postcards and movies and the evening news, the Washington that everyone comes to see. Over million people visit the nation’s capital each year, a number that is expected to double by the middle of the next century. Most of these visitors flock to the museums and memorials around the Mall. Yet now that the last Mall site has been committed, locations for a dozen new museums and as many as new memorials and monuments must be found elsewhere in the city. Even with pressure for leaner government, new homes for some Cabinet departments and perhaps the Supreme Court will have to be built. The flurry of new embassies, consulates and foreign trade missions, evidence of Washington’s prominence as an international city, will also have to be accommodated. With a farsighted plan, these new buildings can be located where they will expand the local economy and enrich community life instead of being dropped helter skelter onto whatever site happens to be available.
Extending the Legacy is such a plan. Prepared by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), the federal government’s planning agency in the District of Columbia and surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia, it addresses the problems of the Monumental Core with bold proposals for transporta tion, community revitalization, public building and open space, including miles of connected public waterfront on both sides of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. The Monumental Core is the symbolic heart of the nation and the physical expression of our Constitution with its three separate branches of government. It is also our national gathering place, where parades and protests and national celebrations occur, where citizens go to observe government in action and to appreciate the nation’s cultural and scientific achievements. And it is the economic center of Washington, where hundreds of thousands of people work and live. Yet Extending the Legacy does more than preserve what is traditional and familiar. It redefines the Monumental Core to include adjacent portions of North, South and East Capitol streets. It reclaims and reconnects the city’s waterfront, from Georgetown on the Potomac River to the National Arboretum on the Anacostia. It corrects old problems by removing portions of the Southeast/Southwest Freeway, adjacent rail road tracks and several bridges that have divided neighborhoods and dismembered Washington for decades. It addresses the District’s urgent need for jobs, housing and mobility. And it creates opportunities for new parks, offices and transit centers in all quadrants of the city. The plan combines bold moves at an urban scale with precise surgical ones appropriate for neighborhoods. It is neither a policy document nor an abstract theoretical exercise. It is a physical plan informed by a vision of what Washington could be. America has the resources and the imagination to create a more efficient and beautiful capital and to strengthen its position as a great international city. Extending the Legacy is a key instrument in bringing about this transformation.
Clockwise, from upper left: Revived Anacostia waterfront • The Capitol is the center of the expanded Monumental Core • New bridge at East Capitol Street • Site for new memorial on 10th Street, SW
A framework for change ˜
Extending the legacy represents the third act in a continuing planning drama that began over 200 years ago, when President George Washington commissioned
Pierre L’Enfant to lay out the new capital. Like the L’Enfant and McMillan plans, it looks ahead 50 to 100 years. And like them, it offers a framework for future development.
A framework for change
A framework is not a blueprint that renders the future in precise and immutable detail. It is more like a map with a few dramatic highlights, corresponding to the best locations for museums, parks, bridges, transit stations and other public assets. It is both a guide to the big picture and a defense against the myopic quick fix.
This critical distinction was explained nearly a century ago by President Theodore Roosevelt in a speech to the American Institute of Architects. “What I have said does not mean that we shall go, here in Washington for instance, into immediate and extrava gant expenditures on public buildings. All that it means is that whenever hereafter a public building is provided for and erected, it should be erected in accordance with a carefully thought-out plan adopted long before and that it should be not only beautiful in itself, but fitting in its relation to the whole scheme of public buildings, the parks and the drives of the District.”
Legacy began as a search for a “carefully thought-out plan” that would ensure the orderly development of the Monumental Core. In the mid-s it became clear that such orderly development was threatened by a flood of new museums and memorials, primarily along the Mall. The East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, the National Air & Space Museum and the Hirshhorn Museum had all opened within a decade, and a dozen more important proposals, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, were in the works. At that rate, the Mall’s dis tinctive openness would soon disappear under a mantle of marble and glass.
NCPC prepared several studies exploring alternatives to overbuilding on the Mall. One showed the north west quadrant of the city jammed with new museums, memorials and office buildings, arranged in tight, Beaux-Arts configurations. Another relocated the Supreme Court to the Potomac Tidal Basin and framed it with conventional Neoclassical civic architecture. These approaches were monumental and remote, barely acknowledging the existence of non governmental Washington.
Although largely hypothetical, these planning studies sparked intense debate about the competing claims of open space and new development in the heart of Washington. In the end, NCPC made preserving and enhancing the open space around the Mall the cornerstone of its new plan and locating new museums and memorials outside the Mall the principal tool for achieving it. The Mall is a unique national space, the Commission reasoned, a summary of our democratic ideals and achievements, and must be protected from excessive development.
The plan recenters Washington on the Capitol and extends development to the four quadrants of the city.
This simple pencil sketch was the catalyst for Extending the Legacy.
In -, NCPC invited a team of prominent architects, urban designers, economists and transportation planners to review the staff’s initial studies. Think about the whole city, the consultants urged, not just the federal enclave. While preserving Washington’s ceremonial heart was commendable, the opportunity to address some of the city’s other urgent needs — jobs, housing, transit — was unprecedented. What began as a federal facilities study gradually evolved into a vision for an expanded Monumental Core. A problem had been transformed into an opportunity.
NCPC conducted workshops and community meetings to hear the public’s views about replanning the
Monumental Core. The sessions took place in schools, libraries and The Legacy exhibit at Union Station encouraged visitors to share their community centers, at night and on weekends. visions of Washington’s future.
Once again, consultants reviewed and commented on the staff’s work and made several important suggestions. The most crucial was a simple axial diagram showing the Capitol as the center of Washington, with bold lines radiating north, south, east and west. This single move redefined the plan, pushing it east and south toward the Anacostia River and enlarging the traditional boundaries of the Monumental Core. Unlike earlier plans, Extending the Legacy goes beyond the Mall and the ceremonial enclaves and expands the definition of “federal interest” to include adjacent neighborhoods, waterfronts, parks and gateways.
Like the earlier McMillan Commission, the consultants not only supplied design ideas, but also gave a fledgling plan visibility, credibility and political clout. Their participation showed that Extending the Legacy was not just another busywork document written for the archives, but a unique collaboration among government agencies, community groups and some of America’s most talented urban designers.
Out of these early collaborations came the five themes that form the armature of Extending the Legacy:
1 Building on the historic L’Enfant and McMillan plans, which are the foundation of modern Washington;
2 Unifying the city and the Monumental Core, with the Capitol at the center;
3 Using new memorials, museums and other public buildings to stimulate economic development;
4 Integrating the Potomac and Anacostia rivers into the city’s public life and protecting the Mall and the adjacent historic landscape from future building; and
5 Developing a comprehensive, flexible and convenient transportation system that eliminates barriers and improves movement within the city.
The new plan for Washington expresses neither an imperial dream, nor only the wishes of Washington’s political and business establishment. It derives instead from years of collaboration among federal agencies, local governments and community groups. NCPC returned to the community many times to review and refine the plan so that it would reflect the popular will.
Extending the Legacy made its national debut in March at Washington’s Union Station, complete with model, videos and dramatic graphics. This event was followed in June by a major exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. Over million people visited the museum during its seven-month run. NCPC also received thousands of responses to its visitor question naire, many filled front and back with suggestions for improving the plan. Whatever their political views, Americans are unequivocally proud of their capital — its beauty, its history and its power to symbolize their best aspirations. The plan has been widely reviewed by the popular and profes sional press and been the subject of several television programs. In both overall conception and specific details, Extending the Legacy can truthfully be called a “national plan” for the heart of the nation’s capital.
The Capitol dome provides a stunning backdrop for night life on the new South Capitol Street.
Clockwise, from upper left: L’Enfant Plan detail • George Washington and Pierre L’Enfant • Washington Monument grounds, McMillan Plan • Anacostia waterfront, 1834
building on the past ˜ Washington’s remarkable openness is the legacy of
Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the French engineer who, with surveyor Andrew Ellicott and mathematician Benjamin
Banneker, laid out the city in 1791. L’Enfant wanted his fledgling capital to make a powerful symbolic statement, so he designed a city of broad avenues and imposing public spaces that radiate outward from the “President’s
House” and the “Congress House” like spokes on a wheel.
Space — great, unfolding expanses of it — was a way to distinguish America from Europe, and new world capitAls from old.
building on the past
At the same time, L’Enfant recognized that grandeur is never enough. So where his sweeping boulevards intersected the grid of local streets, he created circles and squares and proposed for them monuments and statues to symbolize the joining of federal and state interests. These public spaces were to be the focal points of neighborhoods to encourage the mixing of big and little, grand and ordinary.
Extending the Legacy enlarges L’Enfant’s vision by protecting Washington’s open spaces and by distributing federal investment to all quadrants of the city. It increases public access to the waterfront, a key feature of L’Enfant’s Plan, by creating a new network of parks, playing fields, marinas and other attractions that enrich urban life. By removing the Southeast/Southwest Freeway near the Mall and relocating the railroad tracks from Maryland and Virginia avenues, the plan allows the The L’Enfant Plan of 1791 laid the foundation for modern Washington. restoration of major L’Enfant thoroughfares, including Maryland, Virginia and Delaware avenues and South Capitol Street.
The L’Enfant Plan laid the foundation for modern Washington. Yet in the decades that followed its adoption, many of its bold ideas were ignored or subverted. The new Treasury building cut off the view of the White House from Capitol Hill. Railroad tracks sliced across the Mall near the present National Gallery of Art. The Mall itself became a hodgepodge of informal gardens, pastures and walkways that blocked the path from the Capitol to the Washington Monument.
The McMillan Plan of 1901 restored the Mall’s historic sweep and framed it with impressive museums and monuments that celebrate our nation’s achievements. It created Memorial Bridge to unite Washington and Virginia, symbolizing the reuniting of the North and South at the end of the Civil War. By reclaiming the Anacostia River and reconnecting it to the heart of the city, Extending the Legacy builds on the McMillan Plan’s precedents.
Washington’s revived waterfront will sparkle with cafés, boating and street life.
˜ The McMillan Plan has guided developmentst of 21the Monumental Core in the Century. ˜
Clockwise, from upper left: South Capitol Street • New bridge linking Anacostia and East Capitol Street • North Capitol Street at New York Avenue • Possible Supreme Court site on South Capitol Street
unifying the city and the core ˜
At the heart of Extending the Legacy is a new definition of the Monumental Core that includes not only the
Mall and the traditional ceremonial spaces, but also North and South Capitol streets, the Anacostia River and adjacent areas. The Capitol once again becomes the symbolic center of the city, as L’Enfant intended, with its power radiating outward in all directions.
unifying the city and the core
The key to organizing this expanded Core is redeveloping North and South Capitol streets as civic gateways and making East Capitol Street a major link between central Washington and communities across the Anacostia River.
Untangled from its maze of freeways and railroad tracks, South Capitol Street could serve as a new southern gateway to central Washington, at the scale of Pennsylvania Avenue, with a lively mix of shopping, housing and offices. If the Supreme Court decides to move, it should be located at the tip of South Capitol, on the river. Such a location would follow the Architect of the Capitol’s suggestion that a special site for the Court be found within the Core that underscores the importance of three separate branches of government. A riverside location could attract visitors and provide a new focus for museums and other cul tural activities. The redevelopment of the Southeast Federal Center and Washington Navy Yard, with a projected 15,000 new jobs, should reinforce this surge of economic activity.
South Capitol Street’s new energy will eventually flow across the Anacostia River to Poplar Point on the southeast side of the river. In addition to museums and restaurants along the water’s edge, this underused and now largely inaccessible tract of federal land could be developed with housing, parks, stores and offices. These activities would complement the historic scale of the nearby Old Anacostia neighborhood, which will be reconnected to its waterfront once the Anacostia Freeway is depressed.
In Legacy, North Capitol Street becomes a tree-lined boulevard of museums, hotels, residences and offices, with the Capitol as its dramatic focal point. Distinctive landscaping will enhance the character of the street and make it a memorable introduction to the nation’s capital.
East Capitol Street will become the link between the traditional Monumental Core and the Anacostia River. While the existing Capitol Hill neighborhood of quiet streets and historic row houses will remain undisturbed, the Anacostia waterfront will be transformed into a new ecological precinct, with the river and parks as the centerpieces and environmental stewardship as the theme. The area will celebrate parks, islands and wetlands; an aquarium is proposed for Kingman Island. The RFK Stadium site, now mostly parking lots, will contain a major memorial, surrounded by new housing and commercial development. This proposal for the Anacostia waterfront would not only increase total park acreage in the District, but also make it more accessible to more people for more activities.
East capitol street
RFK Stadium will be replaced by a memorial, an environmental center and housing and commercial development.
north capitol street
North Capitol Street will become a lively urban boulevard combining public and private development.
south capitol street
South Capitol Street today — severed and isolated.
With the Southeast/Southwest Freeway removed, South Capitol Street can become a new gateway to the city.
Clockwise, from upper left: 8th Street arts and entertainment district • East Potomac Park • Memorial gateway at East Capitol Street • New South Capitol Street Bridge at Poplar Point
museums, memorials and the federal workplace ˜ With the opening of the National Museum of the American
Indian in 2002, the McMillan Plan for the Mall will be complete. From the foot of the Capitol to the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial, all of the choice memorial sites will have been assigned. Yet lack of space has not dammed the flood of requests. Over the next 50 years, Washington may have to accommodate another dozen museums and up to 60 new memorials and monuments.
museums, memorials and the federal workplace
If the Monumental Core is to remain America’s national gathering place and at the same time preserve its historic openness, sites for these new museums and memorials must be found outside the Mall, in adjacent neighborhoods and commercial districts that need public investment and some signal from government that they matter. Legacy strongly discourages new building on the Mall itself.
Museums and memorials could be prominent features of the redesigned North and South Capitol streets, attract ing visitors and residents who might not go there otherwise. If well designed and strategically located, they could spark investment in stores, hotels and office buildings and become sources of community pride and identity.
Monuments and memorials have enduring East Potomac Park, southeast of the appeal for all generations. Jefferson Memorial, would be an ideal site for smaller memorials. Visible from air, land and water, it could become a significant ceremonial and recreational space for the capital.
The District and federal governments, along with private cultural groups, foresee 8th Street, NW between the National Archives and Mt. Vernon Square as the spine of a growing downtown arts and entertainment district. New museums, theaters and an opera house would complement the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of American Art, the new MCI Arena, and the new convention center.
When the McMillan Commission identified sites for new museums and memorials nearly a century ago, the definition of both was widely understood. A museum was a repository of important social and cultural artifacts; a memorial commemorated a significant person or event in our nation’s history. Those definitions are changing. Technology has brought us the interactive museum and the virtual museum, the museum with no collection and the museum that we visit only on our computer screens. Memorials today can be events, ceremonies and landscapes as well as heroic objects. Extending the Legacy is proposing that the Anacostia waterfront near East Capitol Street become a living environmental memorial in which enjoyment of the river and nature becomes itself an act of commemoration.
This redefinition of museum and memorial will continue into the next century, affecting the scale, siting and symbolism of what is built. Under such fluid conditions, the best thing for planners to do is to devise flexible guidelines that protect the public realm without usurping the prerogatives of future generations.
eighth street, NW
The 8th Street, NW arts district will stimulate downtown economic growth.
˜
The new South Capitol Street Bridge creates a dramatic st entrance 21to the Core. ˜
Sites that strengthen visual and symbolic connections to the Capitol should have top priority. Locations that reclaim waterfront for public use should likewise be encouraged, such as East Capitol Street or Poplar Point. Whenever possible, new museums and memorials should be integrated into the community to enrich the layering of urban life. They should be welcoming rather than coolly aloof and, whenever possible, accommodate diverse uses. Similar efforts should be made to modernize and humanize the federal workplace. Computers, faxes and fiber optics are permitting more people to work at home while shrinking the demand for conventional, four-walls-and-a-desk office space. Instead of commuting downtown five days a week, many employees are now using satellite offices closer to home. A single office may be shared by several companies on a rotating basis, each paying a share of the rent and expenses. It is unclear whether the contraction of the federal government will be permanent or merely a hiatus in an historical pattern of expansion. Either way, a return to the sterile worker warehouses of the past seems unlikely. Employees will continue to come into the office some part of the week. But they will likely come with different expectations, which government buildings must meet. In the past, government buildings have often frustrated public life, being too big, too remote, too impenetrable. Extending the Legacy recommends that future government buildings be incorporated into mixed-use districts that support a range of public activities, including shopping, dining and entertainment. North and South Capitol streets could offer many such opportunities, as will proposed developments at Poplar Point and the Southeast Federal Center. Improvements can also be made to existing government buildings. The cluster of chilly monoliths that make up the Federal Triangle could be animated by first floor shops, exhibitions and other attractions for employees and visitors. Some might eventually be converted to cultural and tourist uses, in the manner of the Old Post Office and the Pension Building. Opening the interior courtyards of these buildings would create a Federal Walk from 9th to 15th streets, connecting the Old Post Office to the new Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center and the Ellipse. This network of interior pedestrian streets would complement adjacent grand avenues. These changes in federal offices and institutions will encourage future generations to think of central Washington not just as a place to erect memorials, but as a place to create a city.
federal triangle
New and existing federal buildings can be enlivened with gardens, cafés and art exhibits.
Clockwise, from upper left: New footbridge over Washington Channel • Water taxis serving the Kennedy Center • Arlington National Cemetery • Anacostia waterfront at the Southeast Federal Center
waterfronts and open spaces ˜
Washington’s founders envisioned a bustling port that spread out from the confluence of the Potomac and
Anacostia rivers to thriving neighborhoods surrounded by lush green hills. “Nature has done much for it,” Pierre
L’Enfant observed, “and with the aid of art, it will become the wonder of the world.”
waterfronts and open spaces
That historic awareness of Washington as a vital river city has been lost. Freeways slice across waterfronts; grand vistas are eclipsed by bridges and elevated railroad tracks; new development turns its back on the river.
Extending the Legacy aspires to recapture that earlier vision and to offer Washington residents the same intimate connection to their rivers as Londoners and Parisians enjoy. With this new plan, the city’s waterfront — most of which is publicly owned — will become a continuous band of open space from Georgetown to the National Arboretum. Some stretches will be quiet and pastoral, perfect for walks or picnics, while others will support festivals, concerts and other urban activities.
The tip of South Capitol Street might feature restaurants, concerts, marinas and various kinds of river-front enter tainment. Most of the Anacostia waterfront, on the other hand, would have a more relaxed character appropriate to its neighborhood setting and its focus on ecology and the environment.
A new water taxi system will link many points along both rivers, making it possible to go from an afternoon picnic at Poplar Point to an evening concert at the Kennedy Center without getting into a car.
On the west bank of the Potomac, heavy commuter traffic will be diverted from the George Washington Memorial Parkway to increase public access to waterfront parks and the spectacular views of monumental Washington.
In the new plan, Arlington National Cemetery will remain a place of commemoration for America’s heroes and public servants. Its green hills and overlooks, imprinted on the national memory by state funerals and important military ceremonies, will be pre served, while nearby Fort Myer will be enhanced as a setting for parades and other ceremonial events.
anacostia waterfront
Anacostia waterfront at Massachusetts Avenue, SE, showing proposed aquarium on Kingman Island.
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The reclaimed Washington waterfront will accommodatest many21 kinds of activities. ˜
Clockwise, from upper left: The new downtown circulator • Potomac water taxis • Restored Maryland and Virginia avenues • New 14th Street Bridge
transportation ˜
The broad goal of Extending the Legacy is to create a unified, beautiful and equitable city. And the centerpiece of that effort is improved transportation.
transportation
While Washington is well served by trains, subways, highways and airports, these systems are poorly integrated and surprisingly inflexible. Its freeways, bridges and tunnels are chronically overloaded, to the detriment of both District residents and suburban commuters. Washington must solve these transportation problems soon or pay the consequences in lost jobs, dwindling investment and a declining quality of life.
Future SW Street Pattern Extending the Legacy offers a new (with SE/SW Freeway removed and rail relocated) transportation agenda based on expanded public transit and cautious reworking of existing streets and avenues. With regional automobile traffic ■ New boulevard projected to increase by percent over the next years, and the number (historic F Street, SW) of annual visitors to the capital to double by , improved public transit
■ Maryland and is imperative. Metrorail can double its ridership by running longer and Virginia Avenues, more frequent trains, improving stations and park-and-ride facilities in SW (reclaimed outlying areas and developing better shuttles to and from stations. Virginia Ave., SW SW/SE from historic rights Maryland Ave., SW of-way) /SE Washington has many intercity trains 14th St., SW 14th St., SW 14th St., ■ Existing 14th Street F St., SW and three major airports (National, Dulles and Baltimore-Washington International), which should be sufficient into the middle of the century. The plan recommends extending rail service directly into Dulles and Baltimore-Washington International airports so that public transit can have the same broad, integrative reach as the urban highway system.
Removing the antiquated rail line along Maryland and Virginia avenues and relocating freight and passenger trains to a new tunnel under the Potomac will eliminate many disruptive barriers, including the aging rail bridge over the Anacostia. This new tunnel would run from just south of National Airport to Anacostia, with a passen ger spur continuing on to Union Station.
But these improvements alone will not absorb the anticipated flood of visitors. Legacy proposes new transit centers at Union Station, the Southwest Federal Center, South Capitol Street and East Capitol Street near the river. Additional centers are recommended for the intersections of the Capital Beltway and major regional highways. Transit centers are crossroads or junctions where passengers switch from one type of transportation to another. Their role is to reduce auto and bus traffic in the Core by providing convenient and inexpensive alternatives at the perimeter.
maryland avenue, sw
Motorists on a restored Maryland Avenue will enjoy dramatic views of the Capitol.
Future Transit Network
■ Existing Metrorail ■ Circulator ■ Water Transportation Landings Transit Centers
New technology will play a critical role in Legacy’s mobility agenda. Only years separate the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk from Neil Armstrong on the moon. Future changes in transportation are likely to be even more dramatic. Several states are experi menting with computerized highways to increase road capacity while improving safety. Amphibious cars — contemporary versions of the old Army “ducks” — could eventually make bridges obsolete. Sophisticated fare-collecting devices are already operational on many subway systems.
Legacy is proposing a supplementary transit system called a “circulator” to carry tourists and commuters around the Core. Whatever the technology, this system-within-a-system would provide a pleasant alternative to the car by allowing passengers to travel at a Future Rail Alignment leisurely pace and connect to Metro, light rail and such popular unserved ■ areas as the Lincoln and Vietnam Veterans memorials. Existing Rail ■ Proposed Passenger Water taxis will round out the new ■ Proposed Freight transportation system. They will serve dozens of locations on both sides of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, giving commuters and visitors a different way to get around Washington. Unsnarling the noose of freeways and bridges around the Monumental Core presents different challenges, though ones that Boston, San Francisco and other American cities are meeting successfully.
The basic strategy is to replace obsolete structures with improvements that benefit large areas of the District, coordinating these efforts whenever possible to coincide with the District’s plans for rebuilding neighborhoods or reclaiming the waterfront. The goal is not only to improve movement through the city, but also to allow the city to grow from within. Relocating antiquated rail lines and burying divisive freeways will create hundreds of acres of developable land that the District needs to compete with the suburbs. Having choice building sites in the heart of the city — near public transit and within walking distance of museums, stores and restaurants — could be the urban opportunity that many corporations and government agencies are looking for.
˜ The new Street Bridge celebrates the connectionst 21between Washington and its suburbs. ˜
the kennedy center
The proposed Kennedy Center Plaza turns a tangle of freeway ramps into an exciting civic space.
The tangle of five crossings that forms the Street Bridge can be replaced by a single monumental span leading to downtown, supplemented by a new tunnel to the South Capitol Street area. With the Southeast/Southwest Freeway and the railroad tracks removed, vehicles using this new gateway can turn onto a restored Maryland Avenue that offers dramatic views of the Capitol. The existing Metrorail bridge could be replaced by a tunnel, allowing construction of a new underground Metro station to serve East and West Potomac parks. Another monumental gateway could be created at South Capitol Street by replacing the obsolete Frederick Douglass Bridge with a new six-lane span that would also accommodate pedestrians and bicycles.
North of the Lincoln Memorial, the Kennedy Center will be freed from a straitjacket of half-completed freeways and interchanges and reconnected to the city along a landscaped E Street that extends to the White House grounds. This new gateway would reinforce L’Enfant’s vision of Washington as an integrated and visually coherent city. On the west side, a terrace staircase will connect the Kennedy Center to a rejuvenated stretch of waterfront between the Lincoln Memorial and Georgetown.
For the transportation plan to succeed, however, these physical modifications must be accompanied by behavioral ones. Employers must develop traffic management programs that reduce congestion and travel time and, therefore, the demand for more highways. Everything from ride-sharing to transit subsidies and flextime should be encouraged.
If these recommendations are followed, Washington will be not only the symbolic heart of the nation, but a national model of enlightened urban transportation as well.
˜ What makes the District’s situation unique is stits double21 life as America’s Capital and a hometown. ˜ hometown and region
reserving Washington’s civic and ceremonial heart, while renewing Pits adjacent neighborhoods, waterfronts and commercial centers, is the goal of Extending the Legacy. It is a daunting challenge because Washington is still two cities, one federal and one local, divided by conflicting policies and priorities.
Much of the confusion stems from what President Clinton has called the “not quite factor.” Washington, Washington’s neighborhoods are among its greatest strengths. he explained, “is not quite a state, not quite a city, not quite independent, not quite dependent.” It is instead subject to congressional oversight and control, including even the spending of its own tax revenue.
This is not a healthy situation for a great city, but neither is it an occasion for pointing fingers. It is a time for solutions.
The Plan and the District Jobs, transportation and housing are among Washington’s most urgent social and economic problems. If Legacy is to be more than a technical exercise, it must help the city solve them. It must create an urban environment that delights residents and visitors, attracts investment and puts the District on an equal footing with the suburbs. It must be a source of optimism rather than another excuse for cynicism. None of these changes will occur quickly or painlessly, but if even a few of them happen, Washington could once again be a model national capital.
Suburban flight is a major source of the District’s distress. Its population has dropped from , in to , in , with smaller declines projected for the next decade as the middle class continues to depart for the suburbs of Maryland and Northern Virginia. Population gains of percent per decade are common in these areas; they are creating jobs two to three times faster than the District, which has lost , government and service jobs since and absorbed the brunt of federal downsizing. Two-thirds of the District’s workers now live outside its borders and therefore pay no local taxes. Approximately percent of its land is owned by the U.S. and foreign governments and nonprofit institutions, which pay no taxes either.
Many American cities have seen their centers decline as the middle class retreats to the suburbs for better jobs, lower taxes and more dependable public services. Even as the suburbs spawn the problems for which they were supposedly the solution, the Revitalized neighborhoods will attract families back to the city. exodus continues, leaving many American downtowns to the poor and the politically disenfranchised.
What makes the District’s situation unique is its double life as America’s capital and a hometown. The Home Rule Act of gave it control of its prisons, courts, welfare and other services. While this made it more like other cities, it also nearly broke it. From to the District accumulated a million operating deficit, prompting Congress to appoint a Control Board to manage its finances. In July , Congress transferred additional authority from the mayor to the board. Whether this governance change is merely temporary, like many others in the District’s history, or the beginning of the end of Home Rule is unclear. Yet even if the District were the best-managed city in America, it could not flourish without new appropriations, new tax policies and a compelling vision of the future. Legacy provides that vision.
Unlike previous federal plans, which focused on the Mall and surrounding ceremonial enclaves, Legacy proposes using public money to generate private investment in neighborhoods, waterfronts and commercial districts. The redevelopment of South Capitol Street, one of the most blighted areas of Washington, combines federal, District and private funds to rebuild streets and parks, attract businesses and create jobs. The redevelopment of the Southeast Federal Center and Navy Yard alone could provide , construction jobs and a total of , permanent jobs in an area crippled by disinvestment.
Legacy also treats Washington as one city instead of a collection of discrete enclaves by proposing new attractions — civic, cultural, recreational — for all quadrants. It reinforces the District government’s recommendation for an enhanced arts and entertainment district between and streets, NW. For East Capitol Street at the Anacostia River — another area in need of revitalization — the plan pro poses a new environmental park containing wetlands, an aquarium and a regional education center focused on making the river part of Washington’s daily life. The park would replace RFK Stadium and adjacent institutional buildings with gardens, fountains and waterfalls connected to playing fields, marinas and a riverside nature preserve. New housing and commercial development would complete the redevelopment of the area.
At the same time, Legacy provides a Washington offers a broad range of urban housing. vision for Washington’s expanded Monumental Core to years from now that combines strategic local initiatives with long-range capital improvements. Just as Frederick Law Olmsted’s Central Park transformed Manhattan, and Daniel Burnham’s sweeping public lakefront made Chicago the jewel of the Midwest, so Legacy proposes removing freeways and railroad tracks to reknit central Washington and frame it with miles of public waterfront. This mixture of big and little, grand and ordinary is central to L’Enfant’s plan and critical to a prosperous st-century capital.
The Plan and the Region Renewing Washington is impossible without a recognition that the District and its suburbs are one, a kind of city-state with resources greater than the sum of its parts. As the National Capital Chapter of the American Planning Association noted in reviewing a draft of Legacy, “Washington will not survive unless its region, with its incomparable intellectual, managerial and financial resources, can be made one with the city and the federal establishment.”
The District depends on the suburbs for two-thirds of its workers and some of its most popular tourist attractions, including Mount Vernon and the Civil War battlefields. Conversely, every dollar spent in the District generates . in the suburbs, where two-thirds of the retail spending by tourists occurs. Federal contracts are a major part District and regional economies are intertwined. of the suburban economy. Even a modest improvement in the District’s economy would produce a windfall for the suburbs, whereas the District’s continued economic decline can only damage the region’s prosperity.
Loudoun This critical synergy is rarely acknowl County Montgomery County edged or nurtured. With no regional growth plan and no coordinated policies for land use and job creation, the suburbs continue to battle over who can siphon the most jobs, investment and tourists from the District. (Some counties have already zoned themselves to accommodate years District of Columbia of commercial growth.) Whether it’s developing a history theme park, a Arlington regional mall or a sports stadium, each suburban community invariably — County Falls and sometimes understandably — put its interests ahead of the region’s. Fairfax Church
Their residents identify more with their local communities than with Alexandria Washington, which, to them, appears to be just one more big city with Prince Fairfax County big problems. George’s Prince County William County
Yet these intense rivalries also conceal mutual needs. In the simplest terms, the District needs at least , new jobs, while the suburbs need relief from the sprawl and congestion that are threatening mobility, security and the environment. The regional transportation proposal outlined in Legacy not only addresses congestion and pollution problems, but it also provides the basis for rational land-use policies that will prevent their recurrence.
Legacy’s transportation proposals offer solutions If the future belongs to cities where peo to suburban gridlock. ple can move around quickly and inexpensively, metropolitan Washington is stuck in reverse. It is currently the second most congested urban area in America, right behind Los Angeles, and first in per capita cost of wasted fuel and time, some a year. A projected 70 percent increase in traffic over the next years will occur almost entirely in the suburbs, with barely a percent increase in highway capacity. Left uncorrected, this trend will plunge the Washington region even deeper into gridlock.
Legacy calls for extending rail service to Dulles and Baltimore-Washington International airports. The trains will carry more people into the city without increasing traffic congestion. As more commuters leave their cars at home, air quality will improve, and Washington will at last comply with federal clean air standards.
The new rail lines will likely spark development along their rights-of-way, particularly around new regional transit centers. Located along I-, the Beltway and other key arteries, these centers will permit thousands of commuters to transfer quickly from cars to trains and buses and back again. Bikers and joggers may also find them convenient. Places of transfer usually become places of commerce. Like the rail corridors, transit centers will attract businesses and developers, who could make them the new main streets and town squares of the -century regional city.
But new rail lines and transit centers must be accompanied by changes in regional transportation policy. Everything from taxation to parking ratios for office buildings and rules governing the location of federal agencies must be reexamined. The latest transportation technology, from electronic fare cards to computerized cars and highways, should be studied and selectively incorporated into the system.
If transportation is the leading regional imperative, the environment is close behind. It is no accident that Washington sits at the confluence of two rivers, surrounded by abundant developable land. L’Enfant envisioned a green city spreading outward from a sheltered harbor and exploited the natural topography in locating key government buildings. Just as America looks to Washington for lessons about science, government and the arts, it should also be able to find Barriers to enjoying the river will be removed. examples of outstanding environmental stewardship.
One of these examples could be the Anacostia River from East Capitol Street south, another area of enormous potential and shocking neglect. A major tributary of the Potomac water shed, the Anacostia is one of the most polluted rivers in America, gasping under decades of sewage, chemicals and contaminated runoff. Cleaning it up would offer a national example of responsible remediation, while returning a priceless natural resource to the community.
But that is only the beginning. Legacy calls for a revived Anacostia River to become the centerpiece of an environmental park featuring gardens, an aquarium and a nature preserve. This center could be a regional education resource, a destination for tourists and the site for a major national memorial. It could itself be a memorial representing the marriage of urbanity and ecology, as well as an inducement for environmentally sensitive companies to move into the District. Of the , high-tech firms in the region, only — barely percent — are in the District. It is not too fanciful to imagine the next century’s Microsoft or IBM making its home on the banks of the Anacostia. This is certainly the kind of aspiration and commitment that the District will need to compete in the century.
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Even though Legacy looks ahead to years, the first st decade 21will be decisive. ˜ implementation
xtending the Legacy imagines a new capital created over many years by E evolving coalitions of government agencies, corporations and community groups. Such optimism is nothing new for Washington. It took a century for L’Enfant’s original vision to triumph over commercial expediency. Another years passed before the Mall described in the McMillan Plan came into being. Legacy will be no different. While some projects may be completed within a few years of its adoption, others could take , , even years, depending on political South Capitol Development Opportunities and economic conditions.
New Alliances 1 Even though Legacy looks ahead to years, the first decade will be decisive. Plans for key areas of the city must be completed and sites for future museums and memorials identified. To accelerate the process, some type of economic development corporation must be created. This corporation would pool the resources and programs of federal and District governments, private businesses, foundations 3 4 and neighborhood groups. It would also have the authority to acquire, 2 exchange and sell land, issue bonds and distribute grants and tax credits to companies that invest in blighted neighborhoods. 2 2 5 While the final form of this development corporation is undetermined, such an organization is essential to providing 6 the leadership and the funding for major infrastructure improvements — removing freeways, redeveloping waterfronts — as well as for community redevelopment. The corporation would offer an alternative to business as usual, having more flexibility than a typical city planning agency. Its 1 U.S. Capitol mandate would be to respond creatively to new conditions rather than to apply formulaic solutions to complex problems. 2 Anacostia Waterfront 3 Southeast Federal Center New Initiatives 4 Washington Navy Yard Extending the Legacy proposes both long-range capital improvements and short-term initiatives directed at urgent urban 5 Poplar Point problems. These “First Initiatives,” to be carried out mainly by the new 6 Old Anacostia Neighborhood development corporation, are the piers and beams on which the vision of a new Washington rests. They are meant to show the plan in action, on the street and around the neighborhood, in order to generate public and private support for bolder proposals later on.
The most ambitious initiative — and a paradigm for future projects — is the redevelopment of South Capitol/M Street, an historic but blighted area near the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. As an opportunity for enlightened community planning, the area is unequaled. Yet at the moment, its infrastructure is fractured; its housing substandard; its economy shattered by decades of disinvestment.
The South Capitol/M Street corridor is anchored by the Washington Navy Yard and the Southeast Federal Center, major employers with ambitious expansion plans. The Navy Yard is gaining 5,400 employees as the result of the recent Base Closure and Realignment Act. Most of them will occupy new or renovated buildings in the Yard, including the procurement branches of the Navy that are magnets for sub contractors. These companies could locate near the Yard, or in the adjacent A deteriorating M Street will be renewed. Southeast Federal Center, a fallow -acre site that the federal government plans to redevelop. The renovation of the Federal Center and the Navy Yard together will create an estimated , construction jobs and another , permanent jobs.
Thousands of new employees will require banks, restaurants, dry cleaners and other services that could spark the commercial rebirth of South Capitol and M Streets, SE. The area’s main arteries will be enhanced with trees, sidewalks, banners and benches. These are more than cosmetic improvements. As the streets improve, more people will travel them to and from work. More people means greater security, and greater security translates into more investment in the neighborhood. Instead of abandoned buildings and vacant lots, the area could attract apartments, stores and offices. M Street, SE is an example of a small initiative with a big payoff.
NCPC anticipates that the redevelopment energy from South Capitol and M streets will spill over to Poplar Point and Anacostia, two key segments of Legacy’s proposed -mile urban waterfront. With its river setting, Metro connections and panoramic views of the Capitol, Poplar Point could be part of a new southern gateway to central Washington. Congress has already directed the National Park Service to prepare an interim plan for its acres that includes numerous ball fields and tennis courts. As more people are attracted to the area, its future as a regional economic, cultural and educational center will brighten.
The Southeast quadrant of the city will be a focus of future redevelopment.
Government and private businesses could provide money and technical expertise, much of it funneled through an economic development corporation. Legacy in fact urges federal agencies to take the lead in locating offices and cultural facilities in this area. Residents need to see that new development can respect local history and still produce the jobs and economic stability that they desperately need but have never had.
Not all First Initiatives will have the scope and complexity of South Capitol Street or Poplar Point. Some will focus on a specific local need — a new bridge, a neighborhood plaza — while others may serve a particular constituency, such as foreign tourists or business travelers. Reconfiguring the highway ramps around the Kennedy Center could be a joint venture of the National Park Service and the District’s Department of Public Works. The repair or replacement of the deteriorating Roosevelt Bridge, linking Washington and Northern Virginia, could be another cooperative effort.
At a pedestrian scale, First Initiatives recom mends a comprehensive and coordinated visitor orientation program for central Washington. It would involve improved maps and signs and a net work of information kiosks to direct visitors to museums, subways, historic sites and special events. Eventually, the program would be expanded to the entire city.
This is more than an exercise in courtesy and flashy graphics. Twenty million persons visit Washington each year, generating $295 million in tax revenue. Nurturing tourists is vital to Washington’s long-term economic interests.
Investing in the Future Extending the Legacy takes such a long view — and the future is always so cloudy — that calculating its total cost is impossible. Yet the estimated . billion needed for transportation improvements alone makes federal participation essential. The plan proposes that as bridges, tunnels, railroad tracks and other key pieces of the city’s
infrastructure conclude their useful lives, they be replaced by new structures that revitalize large areas of the city. No more billions to prop up the status quo. This is an economic as well as a political decision. Engineering studies show that repairing aging infrastructure costs nearly as much as building from scratch. Since the city will have to spend billions anyway, why not build new and better instead of patching indefinitely?
Funding for capital improvements in national parks and on federal lands could come from the regular appropriations of the agencies involved, with new museums and memorials funded from private contributions.
History shows that such public investment can be recouped many times over in new development and increased property taxes. The Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation, one of Washington’s sparkling success stories, turned million in public money into . billion in private investment over years. Economists estimate that a new development corporation, with approximately million capitalization and million in tax credits, could likewise generate . billion in private investment.
In more concrete terms, Union Station went from a million annual liability to one of the most popular and profitable attractions in Washington. Since reopening in , it has drawn , visitors a day, created , jobs and generated over million in sales tax revenue for the District. Its impeccable restoration has sparked the construction or renovation of eight other buildings in the area, including Postal Square and the Thurgood Marshall Judiciary Building, and transformed the northern side of Capitol Hill.
Legacy estimates that reconfiguring the roads and ramps around the Kennedy Center will liberate acres of land for public use, with a development value of almost half a billion dollars. The acres recaptured from removing a portion of the Southeast/Southwest Freeway has an estimated value of nearly billion. This reclaimed land, combined with other development outlined in the plan, will stimulate investment, generate jobs and help shore up the District’s sagging tax base.
conclusion
xtending the Legacy offers a framework for change that, like the L’Enfant and McMillan plans, combines sweeping ideas for the whole city with smaller ones tailored to streets, blocks and E neighborhoods. Washington must work for its residents and for the people who do business there. It must be clean, safe, attractive and affordable, a place where the trains run on time and stop at interesting places. Yet like all capitals, Washington is also a symbolic city where the values of the nation are on public display. When Washington doesn’t work, it implies that the rest of America isn’t working either. As the focus of attention, Washington must epitomize the nation’s democratic ideals and show the world that it is on the right course for the century. The themes of Extending the Legacy, therefore, are the themes of our time — ecology, mobility, diversity, opportunity. This document reasserts the value of planning and urban design and redefines how government should participate in the renewal of Washington — not as the autocratic master builder, but as a partner and a catalyst for change. Fears that visionary plans such as Legacy are too expensive and cumbersome, a distraction from the urgent business of making cities safe and livable, evaporate when compared with the extraordinary benefits that such planning has already bestowed on Washington. The capital is the product of bold plans, conceived in optimism and carried out with conviction. Inertia is the agent of urban decay. Cities that cannot anticipate the future will be run over by it. “Make no little plans,” urged Daniel Burnham, a member of the McMillan Commission and the father of modern Chicago. “They have no magic to stir men’s blood. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die.” Extending the Legacy aspires to do both: to safeguard the special features of the Monumental Core, the things that make Americans proud and joyful, and to provide a compelling vision of what the rest of the capital could be to years from now — the way Pierre L’Enfant imagined a city that did not exist and put on paper a noble diagram that brought it to life.
policies for extending the legacy
Extending the Legacy is a vision for the Nation’s Capital over the next 50 to ■ The most prominent development sites identified in Extending the 100 years. It sketches the big picture that future generations will fill in. A key Legacy, particularly those with important visual connections to the step in that process is devising policies for the Comprehensive Plan for the U.S. Capitol and other landmarks, are to be reserved for the most National Capital. Published jointly by NCPC and the District of Columbia important symbolic functions. government, the Comprehensive Plan is the principal development document for Washington. The following policies, to be incorporated into the Federal ■ Federal and local governments should cooperate in protecting and Elements of the Comprehensive Plan, translate the Legacy vision into specific enhancing the unique historic resources of the Monumental Core and planning recommendations. surrounding areas.
■ Federal legislative activities should continue to be concentrated on PROTECTING THE LEGACY Capitol Hill, as specified in the Architect of the Capitol’s 1981 master plan. ■ The Mall is a unique national space, a summary of our democratic ideals and achievements, and must be protected from excessive ■ If the Supreme Court decides to relocate, as suggested in the 1981 development. New building on the Mall is strongly discouraged. Capitol master plan, its new site should be comparable in dignity and symbolic importance to the White House and the Capitol. ■ The historic urban design framework of the capital established by the L’Enfant and McMillan plans — open spaces, long axes and dramatic ■ The District’s historic height limit should be preserved, in accordance vistas — must be rigorously protected. with the 1910 Height of Buildings Act. Neighboring communities are urged to respect the integrity of the Mall and the surrounding ■ Elements of the L’Enfant and McMillan plans that have been disrupted, Monumental Core in their own planning and development. especially major avenues and civic spaces, should be restored. ■ Arlington National Cemetery, including the woodland setting, should be preserved as a shrine to America’s military heroes and foremost public servants.
UNIFYING THE CITY AND RENEWING RIVERS AND OPEN SPACES THE MONUMENTAL CORE ■ The Monumental Core should be a model of urban environmental ■ The U.S. Capitol should be the symbolic center of Washington and the quality. It should serve to educate the public about the importance Monumental Core. Development sites that strengthen views of, and of the natural environment, foster the sensitive design of the built symbolic ties with, the Capitol should be given special consideration. environment and conserve and improve open spaces and environmental resources in the National Capital. ■ Future transportation, infrastructure and urban development projects should reinforce the preeminence of the Core. ■ The 22 miles of waterfront along the Potomac and Anacostia rivers should be a national showcase of urban vitality and sensitive design. The ■ Federal activities should benefit all quadrants of the city. Local plan will include different kinds and levels of activity to complement the governments, trade associations, international organizations and character of the rivers themselves — from environmentally sensitive private development should be encouraged to locate in neglected areas, open space near the Arboretum to urban development at South in a manner that strengthens the urban design of the city. Capitol Street.
■ Federal facilities should be placed where they bolster the Washington ■ Barriers that separate the city from its waterfront — freeways, rail lines economy. The historic distribution of federal employment — 60 per and other inappropriate land uses — should be removed. cent in the District, 40 percent in the region — should be enforced. ■ The civic attractions of the Monumental Core should be extended across the Anacostia River through memorials, parks and overlooks, all STIMULATING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT scaled to the surrounding neighborhoods.
■ The federal government, in concert with the District government and the private sector, should create a development corporation to fund IMPROVING TRANSPORTATION and coordinate planning and development projects for specific areas of the city. ■ Washington should become a model of advanced urban transportation, combining a commitment to expanded public transit with support ■ Federal buildings should include shops, restaurants, exhibits and other for new technology and the development of supplementary transit public activities that stimulate street life. systems, such as water taxis and a circulator.
■ ■ Memorial sponsors should consider sites throughout Washington, Metrorail must be the cornerstone of this new system, tied to other including circles and squares on major avenues, waterfronts, urban modes of transportation through a network of transit centers and gateways and scenic overlooks. Special attention should be given to extended to Dulles and Baltimore-Washington International airports. North, South and East Capitol Streets, Poplar Point and 8th Street, NW. ■ Obstacles to movement within the city, including obsolete freeways, ■ Embassies, consulates, trade missions and other international groups tunnels and bridges, should be removed. are encouraged to contribute to the city’s revitalization by making their unique cultural resources available to the Washington community ■ Simple, inexpensive improvements such as sidewalks and bike paths through exhibits, lectures, festivals and other public events. should be constructed at every opportunity.
This report was prepared by the National Capital Planning Commission Representing the U.S. Senate as part of its ongoing mission as the central planning agency for the John M. Belferman, Esq. federal government in the Washington region. The Commission includes Mark J. Eichler three members appointed by the President, two members appointed by Susanne Marshall the Mayor of the District of Columbia, the Secretaries of Defense and of John Mercer the Interior, the Administrator of General Services, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, the Chairman of the House Representing the U.S. of Representatives Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, House of Representatives the Mayor and the Chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia. Marzy Bedford-Billinghurst Dietra L. Ford This report is a collaborative effort of the following people: Roland Gunn Broderick Johnson Members Appointed by the President David S. Julyan Harvey B. Gantt, FAIA, Chairman M.H. Peter Sirh William E. Baumgaertner Melvyn J. Estrin Representing the Mayor of Robert A. Gaines the District of Columbia Dr. Thaddeus Garrett, Jr. David Colby W. Don McGillivray Jill Dennis Glen T. Urquhart Albert G. Dobbins III Margaret G. Vanderhye Representing the Council of Members Appointed by the Mayor the District of Columbia Arrington L. Dixon Linda W. Cropp Dr. Patricia Elwood Charlene Drew Jarvis Edward S. Grandis, Esq. Eric Jones Robert J. Nash, FAIA, NOMAC John McGaw Robert E. Miller, Esq. Representing the Secretary of Defense Joseph Sternlieb Paul Chistolini Jerry R. Shiplett James Whittaker
Representing the Secretary of the Interior John G. Parsons, FASLA Robert Stanton
Representing the Administrator of General Services Judith Binder Linda L. Eastman Jack Finberg June Huber Kenneth Kimbrough William R. Lawson, AIA Robert Peck, Hon. AIA
Consultants to the Commission Harold Adams, FAIA, RIBA, Chairman, RTKL Associates Joseph E. Brown, FASLA, President, EDAW David M. Childs, FAIA, Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Thomas Curley, AIA, Associate Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill David Dillon, Author Antonio G. DiMambro, AIA, President, Antonio DiMambro & Associates, Inc. Ofield Dukes, Public Affairs Consultant Robert Earl, Principal, Oculus Walter Hanson, Transportation Consultant D. Rodman Henderer, AIA, Vice President, RTKL Associates Carol M. Highsmith, Photographer Michael McCann, Artist Robert L. Morris, Transportation Consultant Robert J. Nash, FAIA, NOMAC, President, Robert J. Nash & Associates David W. Schoppert, Transportation Consultant Alan Voorhees, Transportation Consultant
Staff Reginald W. Griffith, AICP, AIA, Executive Director Robert E. Gresham, Deputy Executive Director Sandra H. Shapiro, General Counsel Connie M. Harshaw, Executive Officer John M. Dugan, AICP, Director, Long-Range Planning Mary Fitch, AICP, Monumental Core Project Coordinator David S. Julyan, Director, Intergovernmental Planning & Public Affairs Rita Calvan; Charles E. Clarke; Robert H. Cosby; Javier Del Rio; William Dowd; George V. Evans; David L. Hamilton; Susan M. Hinton, ASLA, AICP; William G. Holt III; Edward C. Hromanik; Donald E. Jackson; Barney Krucoff, AICP; Denise H. Liebowitz; Jerome W. Lindsey; Ann-Marie Maloney; Joseph Mancias, Jr.; Robert W. Marriott, Jr.; Sheri Pruitt-Williams; James K. Russell; Leo Schmittel; Raymond C. Short, Jr.; Tony Simon, AICP; Margot Stephenson; George Toop; and Cy Wagner
Map of Key Locations
1 Anacostia River 2 Arlington National Cemetery 3 East Capitol Street at the Anacostia River 4 East Potomac Park 5 14th Street Bridge 6 Georgetown 7 Jefferson Memorial 8 Kennedy Center 16 15 9 Lincoln Memorial 10 M Street, SE 6 11 Mall NW NE
12 Maryland Avenue, SW 24 8 29 13 Memorial Bridge 14 National Airport 9 27 11 25 3 15 National Arboretum 13 12 23 16 North Capitol Street 7 26 17 Old Anacostia Neighborhood 2 SW 21 SE 18 The Pentagon 10 19 Poplar Point 5 22 28 18 4 20 Potomac River 1 21 South Capitol Street 19 22 Southeast Federal Center 20 17 23 Tidal Basin 24 Union Station 25 U.S. Capitol 14 26 Virginia Avenue, SW 27 Washington Monument 28 Washington Navy Yard 29 The White House
The themes of
Extending the Legacy are the themes of our time —
ecology, mobility, diversity, opportunity.st This document reasserts
the value21 of planning and
urban design and redefines
how government should
participate in the renewal
of Washington.
national capital planning commission 801 pennsylvania Avenue, nw washington, dc 20576
Telephone: (202) 482-7200 Fax: (202) 482-7272 E-Mail: [email protected] Web Site: www.ncpc.gov
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